News

book publisher
Open Road infringed HarperCollins’s copyright
with its e-book edition of Jean Craig-head George’s

1973 bestselling
children’s book
Julie of the Wolves.

No damages havebeen assessed atthis time, but thejudge has orderedthe parties to sub-mit a briefingschedule on po-tential remedies.

VintageLaunchesMovie ClassicsLine

Random House isgoing after filmbuffs. The publish-er’s Vintage Booksimprint has creat-ed Vintage MovieClassics to re-lease backlistbooks that servedas the basis foriconic films. Thenew line will re-lease its first listin the spring withfour re-issues:Edna Ferber’sShowboat (1926);Cimarron (1929),also by Ferber;Fannie Hurst’sBack Street(1931); and BoothTarkington’s AliceAdams (1921).some form of [ongoing] fundraising.” An-other thing the bookstore has done is tocut costs by using volunteer staff. It alsosubmitted a proposal to area businessschools for help with marketing. A teamof students is putting together a market-ing survey, a first for the bookstore.To open Avid, Geddis borrowed anidea from five-year-old Greenlight Book-store in Brooklyn, N.Y.—finding lend-ers in the community, who are paid back,with interest, over five years. During thelife of the loan, those community lendersget a discount on purchases and otherperks. Geddis targeted 15 people, and 10ultimately lent the store money. “They’vebeen an integral part of the bookstore,”she said. “There’s something specialwhen one of the lenders comes in.”Word Up Community Bookshop inUpper Manhattan also wanted to involvethe community by creating a Commu-nity Supported Bookshop program mod-eled after the Community SupportedAgriculture programs used to supportlocal farmers. “It allows us to expandupon local values within a community,”said store cofounder Veronica Liu. Shealso likes the idea of giving people some-thing when they sign up for a $20 share,a tote bag and six wooden nickels re-deemable for used books. The bookstoreis also working with a specially pricedschool share that enables teachers to re-ceive a wooden nickel for each student intheir class. And it holds regular BookHarvests so that CSB members can get afirst look at newly received books.—Judith Rosen

“For an entire industry to shun a tool so
powerful, it’s like shooting themselves in
the foot. Eventually, they’ll have to come
on board. You should go where the people are.” He estimated that by going
with Indiegogo, Changing Hands started out $40,000 in the hole.

Saleem is also an advocate of the all-or-nothing Kickstarter approach, which he
regards as more “authentic. If you’re telling people that you need $80,000 to do
this, then you need $80,000.” He advised other booksellers who might not
have the ability to hire someone to make
their video to focus on the ideas. “It’s
about working around your budget,” he
said. “Production values absolutely help,
but the idea matters, too.”

Other Sources of Funding
Modern Times Bookstore Collective in
San Francisco has raised $20,000 to date
through last fall’s Indiegogo campaign
and straight donations through its fiscal
sponsor, PeaceKey, which loaned it its
nonprofit status. Although the bookstore
didn’t raise the $60,000 it needed to retire its debt, collective member Ruth
Mahaney, who handles accounts payable
and is the children’s book buyer, is pleased
that the store has been able to pay off
some of its highest-interest credit cards.

Now the collective is considering an
online auction and taking steps to lower
its expenses. “I think the future of bookstores is continuous fundraising,” said
Mahaney. “To have a bricks-and-mortar
bookstore is important to people. But a lot
of people don’t shop there. I’m resigned to